


Cast a Shadow so Great

by Tabithian



Series: Fortunes Fade [11]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-24 21:31:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4936057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They hole up in one of Tim's safe houses just outside of Gotham for the first few days after the confrontation with Dick. </p><p> </p><p>A.K.A. That whole thing where Tim and Jason go off to find Bruce and end up getting in ~trouble and falling in with assassins and whatnot. (Like you do.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cast a Shadow so Great

**Author's Note:**

> I've been fighting with this fic for a while now, so I decided to post this chapter as incentive to finish it? (Ahaha, IDK, really. My track record with chaptered fics isn't so great? But. Yes.)
> 
>  
> 
> This takes place right after [Where Night Conquers Day](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4223172) and leads into events from the Red Robin comics. :D?

They hole up in one of Tim's safe houses just outside of Gotham for the first few days after the confrontation with Dick. 

Tim had had a good starting point plotted out when Jason called him, but that phone call and the events that followed demands a new plan because he has Jason to consider now.

He – they - can't just pick up and leave, headed for destinations unknown running after every clue, lead that turns up with no real plan in mind anymore.

Because Jason.

He's full of anger and resentment, gone bitter at the edges moving inwards.

The second day Jason reaches some sort of breaking point, tells Tim everything that happened. 

Jason going down to the Batcave to talk to Dick, and seeing Damian in the Robin suit. The confrontation that followed, hurt and betrayal running deep and Jason's call to Tim when he hadn't known what else to do.

“The worst part is that the bastard's right,” Jason growls, looks up like he's daring Tim to say otherwise.

And Tim.

Tim looks at Jason who is. He's so angry, hurting, grieving, for the father figure he'd had in Bruce, unwavering faith and trust in Dick that's become so badly dented, cracked in places. He's so close to slipping.

Tim looks at Jason, sees all of this, and wonders what it is that makes Jason think Tim's _safe_ in all of this, and makes a decision that hardly feels like one at all.

“What do you want to do?” 

Jason blinks, hands uncurling out of the fists they were in. 

“What?”

Tim smiles, small, at the look on Jason's face.

“What do you want to do?” Tim asks again. 

Because this moment, right here, is so damn important to Jason.

“I thought,” Jason says, swallows hard, and looks away when his voice wavers. “I thought we were going to look for Bruce.”

“No,” Tim says, regrets the look of hurt that flashes across Jason's face, chased by anger. 

Feels a flare of anger at Dick, burning bright in his chest and a snarling rage in the back of his mind even though some part of him knows its not fair to Dick. Not when he's hurting too, doing what he thinks is right. (It's all they ever do, isn't it? So convinced there's no other way.)

Tim walks over to Jason, waits until he looks up and asks, will ask, again and again if he has to, “What do you want to do?”

Dick wants Jason to stay in Gotham, to give up the role of Robin even though Jason wasn't ready for that. Jason wasn't ready for that _yet_ , and Dick took that choice away from him.

Tim had thought he'd known, earlier, what Jason needed. And Tim had done what he felt he'd had to in order for it to happen. Now Tim's wondering if he's just making the same mistake Dick did. Doing what he thinks is the right thing in all the wrong ways, doing more harm than good in the long run. 

He sees how angry, lost, Jason is and.

“I don't know!” Jason yells, turning to face him. “I don't fucking know, okay? You all - “

Jason snaps his mouth shut, closes his eyes and _breathes_ , harsh, raw. 

Says, barely more than a whisper, “I don't fucking know anymore.”

Tim.

“Dick took Robin away from me, and gave it to the demon brat. _You,_ you keep telling me Bruce is alive, that we need to need to find him, but you're _you_.”

Tim flinches, takes a step back.

He's _tried_ , for Jason. For Damian.

He's tried, but he's so painfully aware that it's not enough, never _enough_.

“For fuck's sake,” Jason snarls, closing the distance between them with intent, and shoves Tim, _hard_. “That's not. That's not what I mean, you fucker.”

Jason glares at him, anger and sadness and a deep, aching grief that's not new.

“Jason - “

“You've always _known_ ,” Jason says, anger draining away, dipping low into sorrow, confusion. “Always knew what you were going to do, always made plans, and you always have backup plans for your backup plans in case everything goes to hell. You've never _doubted_ , and I just.”

Jason laughs, hollow. “I don't know, okay?”

That.

Jason couldn't be more wrong about Tim. He doesn't know the things that bring Tim low in the small hours, doesn't know how hard he struggles every damn day. How hard it is just looking at Dick and Jason and the bond they've forged sometimes and not feel a little curl of hurt, something like resentment. 

But.

This isn't about Tim and all the parts of him that don't fit quite right, no.

“Okay.”

They're.

It's.

They have time for Jason to figure out what he wants, needs, for himself.

(Bruce will understand.)

********

Tim spends the next few days dealing with lose ends, settling...business matters back in Gotham while trying to stay under the radar. He takes the bike he has stashed at the safe house and leaves the car for Jason in case he reaches a decision that doesn't include Tim while he's out.

Worries, because.

He's the reason Jason's in this position at all. Trying to make sense of his life now that everything's changed, no stable ground underfoot. Gathering the pieces together to form a new whole.

Tim hates himself for it, even if he can't find it within himself to truly regret any of it, not when.

Tim laughs, ragged, because.

(It was the right thing to do, wasn't it?)

Ra's is right about him, isn't he. 

Plots and schemes and careful manipulations to get the results Tim wanted, what was needed, and look how that's worked out so well for everyone involved.

"Drake.”

Tim slowly turns to see Damian staring up at him. His arms are crossed over his chest and there's a familiar mulish expression on his face.

He doesn't stop to wonder how Damian got into Tim's little nest when it's the same one he used to smuggle Damian into Gotham not that long ago. Tim hasn't bothered to change the security codes since then. Paranoia, maybe, but he doesn't know if Damian might need it one day. (Or might realize Tim is still using it.)

“Damian.”

Here, too, he needs to be careful, oh so careful because _Damian_.

“I thought you left days ago.” 

That's Bruce, in the stubborn set to Damian's jaw, the look in his eyes.

“I'm taking care of a few thing before I leave,” Tim says, watching Damian for his reaction to that.

To look for Bruce, or help Jason find his place in the world now, it doesn't matter, Gotham's no place for either of them right now.

A sneer, followed by, “Todd?”

There's an odd sort of respect between Jason and Damian that Tim usually finds amusing, but now.

“You're still arrogant,” Tim says, softens his words with a small smile when Damian stiffens, reaches out to drop a hand in his hair. “Stubborn, like your father.”

Damian steps out from under Tim's hand, looks up at him, searching.

“You truly believe he is still alive.”

Tim hopes it's not the Pit talking, whispering the things he wants so badly to be true. (It's happened before.)

“Yes.”

Damian's eyes narrow.

And Tim.

“We'll be back,” Tim says, feels a little like a broken record when he says it.

He doesn't know who he's talking about anymore - himself, Jason, Bruce – he just _knows_ it like he's never known anything in his life.

********

The car's still in the safe house's garage when Tim makes it back.

Jason's sitting at the kitchen table, all of the evidence Tim's been able to find so far spread out before him. 

When he looks up, Jason's eyes are clear and his voice is steady. 

“If we're going to find Bruce,” Jason says, and there's a small, incredulous smile on his face like he can't believe what he's saying, “I'm going to need a new identity.”

**Author's Note:**

> As a general sort of FYI: RL has been kind of weird lately? I'm in hermit mode right now, but I will definitely be back in a day or two (or more) to reply to comments and the whatnot from you wonderful people! :D?)


End file.
